For Kennedy, Self-Promotion Is Unfamiliar

Caroline Kennedy recently met with party officials in a conference room in Rochester. Known as the Kennedy Room, it is decorated with pictures of her family.Credit
James Rajotte for The New York Times

In her bid to be appointed the next senator from New York, Caroline Kennedy has zigzagged across the state and talked with dozens of officials and community leaders. She has aired views on topics from the Iraq war to the auto industry bailout and submitted to a round of press interviews.

But after a lifetime of being wooed by others — to speak at events, to write books, to lend her aura of celebrity and glamour to this or that cause — it seems clear that Ms. Kennedy is still finding her stride in what is, for her, a kind of reverse challenge: selling herself.

Interviews with more than a dozen people who have met or spoken with her in recent weeks reveal a fairly uniform portrait of the private Ms. Kennedy in her first turn as a very public woman. Most described her as courteous but reticent, unfailingly gracious but not exactly passionate.

Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of Teachers, who has known Ms. Kennedy for years and had lunch with her this month, said Ms. Kennedy was smart, shy and reserved. Keith L. T. Wright, a Democratic state assemblyman from Harlem who spoke with Ms. Kennedy on the phone a few days before Christmas, said she had yet to light a fire among potential backers.

And while Ms. Kennedy has declared herself “a Kennedy Democrat,” she is still learning, it appears, how to handle the expectations and adulation that come with her name.

When Ms. Kennedy visited the Democratic headquarters in Rochester recently, local officials ushered her eagerly into a conference area known as the Kennedy Room, decorated with pictures of her father, her mother, her younger brother, and Ms. Kennedy herself as a little girl. Ms. Kennedy, while polite, did not appear particularly moved.

“She never responded to the pictures,” recalled Robert Duffy, the mayor of Rochester and the meeting’s host. “She looked and perhaps nodded. She never said a word about it.”

Few of those interviewed described Ms. Kennedy’s performance over the last two weeks as somehow disqualifying. But it appears to have eroded any sense — real or created — that her selection for the job by Gov. David A. Paterson is inevitable. And many described her approach as striking for someone who is not only seeking a high office, but one held by Hillary Rodham Clinton, who in her own first bid for the Senate never left New Yorkers wondering how badly she wanted the job, and how hard she was willing to work to get it.

“She has a lot of work to do, and she has a big hill to climb,” said Representative Nita M. Lowey, a Westchester County Democrat who is among those officials advising the governor on the Senate appointment. “She has to convince Governor Paterson that she is the best qualified to advocate for New York in these tough economic times. She has to be an articulate spokesperson, a strong fighter.”

Representative Joseph Crowley, leader of the Queens Democratic organization — whose holiday party Ms. Kennedy attended on Dec. 18 — said he expected to sit down with Ms. Kennedy soon. But he said he was troubled by her media interviews last weekend.

Her supporters say that if Ms. Kennedy seems less than fervent in her pursuit of the Senate seat, it is out of deference to Mr. Paterson, who has discouraged open lobbying for the job. They note that a traditional campaign — the chicken dinner and county fair route — is not an option. For Ms. Kennedy to be more aggressive would only fuel criticism that she has acted presumptuously, they say, especially because she is under far more scrutiny than any other candidate for the job, including those who have been lobbying behind the scenes as energetically as Ms. Kennedy.

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Ms. Kennedy leaving the meeting in Rochester. She said nothing about the pictures in the Kennedy Room, Mayor Robert Duffy said, though another person at the meeting said she had.Credit
James Rajotte for The New York Times

“I think she is reticent because she knows this is Governor Paterson’s appointment and I don’t think she would do anything to make her uncomfortable with him,” said Representative Louise M. Slaughter, a Democrat from upstate New York who has endorsed Ms. Kennedy. “I think she is acting with perfect decorum, given the fact that she really only needs to please one person.” (Ms. Slaughter, who was at the meeting in Rochester, recalled Ms. Kennedy’s reaction to the conference room pictures as gracious but brief. “She said ‘Oh, that’s very nice.’ “)

Others pointed out that Ms. Kennedy was also laboring under a colossal weight of expectations. Some people seem to expect her to be more, well, Kennedyesque — gregarious and extroverted. But Ms. Kennedy’s own political style seems to have more in common with that of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who once held Mrs. Clinton’s seat: cerebral, restrained, wry.

In an age when flamboyant displays of warmth and empathy seem almost like an obligatory feature of campaigning, Ms. Kennedy simply seems to prefer keeping her feelings to herself.

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“She’s never been aggressive,” said Maura Moynihan, a friend and college classmate of Ms. Kennedy’s and the daughter of the senator. “She’s never been an egomaniac. She’s never pushed her way before the cameras.”

“Caroline,” she added, “has never had to sell herself, but she has spent her whole life trying to help other people. She is a person of extraordinary integrity.”

In some of her meetings, Ms. Kennedy has displayed a playfulness that is still more familiar to her close friends than to the public. Byron W. Brown, the mayor of Buffalo, said that when they met recently in his city hall office, he asked if it was O.K. if he called her Caroline. Her response, Mr. Brown said, made for a kind of “Sarah Palin-Joe Biden moment.”

“Is it O.K. if I call you Byron?” Ms. Kennedy responded, recalling the vice presidential debate earlier this year.

Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat, who had lunch with Ms. Kennedy in Williamsburg recently, described her as having “somewhat of an aura about her.”

“When you look at her, there’s just something about her,” he said. “She’s not jumping out at you, but when we sat down we talked for 40 minutes. And she was a very talkative, very knowledgeable person.”

Michael Fishman, the president of Local 32BJ of the influential service employees’ union in New York, said that even if Ms. Kennedy did not appear to be burning with ambition, he was more concerned with whether she would stand with labor on issues like collective bargaining and health care.

“I wouldn’t say passion,” Mr. Fishman said in describing her. “What comes across to me is quiet strength and commitment. She had to have some steel in her spine to do this. That’s what you want.”

To some extent, the mixed reaction to Ms. Kennedy may reflect these officials’ own ties and interests. Ms. Weingarten, for example, is herself a contender for the Senate job, while Mr. Lopez endorsed Ms. Kennedy shortly after meeting with her. Likewise, if Mr. Paterson appointed another top contender for the job — Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo — the Legislature would select a new attorney general, who would then be heavily indebted to the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver.

Mr. Silver, who has been openly antagonistic to Ms. Kennedy’s bid, said, “She clearly hasn’t shown herself to have the chutzpa of a Chuck Schumer to go out there and advocate for New York in the way in which he has clearly been effective.”

“There’s no question,” he added, “she’s not used to the political system.”

Ms. Kennedy’s whirlwind introduction has raised some doubts about her temperament and political hunger. One person who discussed the Senate job with Ms. Kennedy, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity in fear of retribution from her supporters, said that she did not convey a thirst for the job, adding, “It was hard to discern if she wants this or if she’s doing this out of a sense of duty.”

David M. Halbfinger contributed reporting.

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